Until Dawn; Epilogue: Chris and Ashley

The Ride Home

~Chris
If anyone had told me a year ago that my life would be forever changed, I would've just laughed in their face. How could a guy like me, a normal teenager, ever conceive of this fate? It was laughable, in all the most horrid ways, in all the disturbing trickles.

I had, unknowingly, taken part in what would start the Butterfly Effect. That stupid little anecdote I made to Sam on the cable car, just to pass time, was resoundingly accurate to what happened.

I don't think anyone of us knows how to think about one another. What am I? Am I a hero? A Boyfriend? A Coward? Do I deserve the title of Worst-Best-Friend-Ever? I didn't want to think so, but the guilt of leaving Josh behind still stung.

It stung bad.

The betrayal, the death that chased us through the night, the Stranger and his last moments...the sickening sound of a wet plop as his head hit the snow...

...It was all too much.

Tonight couldn't have happened. There was no plausible way that what we had just been through actually happened. It had to be a figment of my imagination, a nightmare, an illusion of reality.

Yet, as I picked through my thoughts of the night, I couldn't help but smile. She'd kissed me. On the lips. She. kissed. me.

Did it mean anything? Or were our thoughts just to scrambled to even be thinking straight. Did she mean what she said? Does she feel as strongly as I feel?

That certainly was one of the most unexpected yet heartfelt moments of my entire life, followed shortly by the most horrific experience I'd ever felt. My eyes went wide again as I realized that we all could've died up on that mountain. The mountain we're currently being rescued from.

As I jerked myself from my thoughts, my eyes wandered across the cockpit of the helicopter, eyes scanning across all of my torn up friends. I almost forgot that they were there, that they'd been through Hell too.

Em was still running her mouth-off, complaining how hard she'd sue the Ranger Service if they so much as even thought about blaming us for what happened tonight.

Mike was jerky, his movements not quite matching his facial expressions. His eyes constantly darting back to sleeping Jess, as if he was afraid she'd disappear if he looked away long enough.

Sam was just blank...her body unmoving as she gazed out the window. She looked like she'd just fought a war, and I vowed to buy her a Snickers if the Ranger Station had a vending machine, knowing that it was her favorite candy. I'd buy that chocolate delight if it was the last thing I'd do...I owed her that much. Sam pretty much saved all of our asses back there.

The final face I drifted to was the one sitting next to me, her head resting on my shoulder, her fingers interlaced with mine. The feeling of her against me brought a huge comfort to my battered mind and body.

We did it. We survived.

The thought of Ash screaming, her eyes filled with terror as her hands were strapped to those chairs. It was in that moment, the cold gun in my hand, that I realized that I would die for this girl. I would DIE for her.

And I knew, that no matter what night terrors we'd no doubt suffer through after getting back to civilization...

... I knew we wouldn't have to face it alone. We need each other. For support. For comfort. So we would never have to face any other nightmare without one another. We were about to start a whole new life together. A fresh start. And I couldn't wait.